Tayyibah, St. Paul Minnesota. Fatima, Creil, France. Samira, Algiers, Algeria. What do these women have in common? They are all Muslim, and they’ve all had a run-in with the law.

Their crimes, you ask? Wearing Hijab, or the Islamic head scarf. Worldwide there seems to be a growing consensus that a few yards of cloth on a woman’s head, especially if it covers part or all of her face, is a threat to education, women’s rights, public security and even to freedom of religion itself.

MUSLIM COUNTRIES NOT IMMUNE TO THE TREND
Amazingly, countries whose populations are predominantly Muslim are not immune to this trend. Indeed, it seems they have led the charge.
For many years, Turkey, followed more recently by Algeria and Tunisia, has had a prohibition on wearing Hijab.
Egypt, up until a few weeks ago, also forbade women students to wear scarves. Morocco forbade its citizens living in France to join protests against Hijab strictures there.
Women who defy the bans may be arrested, denied jobs and education, fined or even thrown in prison. More recently, moves against the Hijab have been made in European and American countries.
THE CASE OF HIJAB DISCRIMINATION IN FRANCE
This September in France, the national minister of education issued a directive that effectively banned head scarves from the classroom. On October 3, police were called in to prevent 22 Muslim girls from entering their school wearing the Hijab.
Since then polls have shown that 86 percent of the French populace supports the education minister’s decree.
The general perception is that Hijab is a threat to secularism and the separation of religion and state. In particular, there was concern that Hijab is responsible for dividing Muslim and non-Muslim students.
Some even claim that it is an Islamist plot to “demolish the secular public system” (Le Point Magazine).
Others worry that head scarves introduce religious influences into the public school and places undue strain on other students to conform to Islam’s dress or moral code.
HIJAB: A VIOLATION OF A WOMAN’S RIGHTS?
Another claim is that Hijab constitutes a violation of the female’s human rights because it is a form of discrimination.
Yet, it is common in France for students to wear crosses or yarmulkes (the Jewish skullcap) and for Jewish students to be exempted from Saturday classes. Defending his discriminatory decision, [French education minister Francois] Bayrou declared, “My instructions to school heads will be very clear. We will continue to accept discrete religious signs, as has always been the case. But we cannot accept ostentatious signs that divide our youth.”
BENAZIR BHUTTO ON THE HIJAB
Visiting Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto added insult to injury, when addressing the French Diplomatic Press Association on November 3.
[She]said that Muslim girls who want to wear head scarves perhaps “want to make an identity of their own and to observe what they consider to be their traditions,” and declared “luckily my father did not ask me to wear a veil, otherwise I might not be here before you today.”
HIJAB DISCRIMINATION IN AUSTRALIA
Sociology professor Gary Bouma, of Melbourne’s Monash University, who authored [the] Australian Bureau of Immigration and Population Research’s report, says wearing the Hijab “clearly sets a woman aside as different and as a serious Muslim,” adding “that wearing the Hijab made it difficult for them to get jobs.”
The report, which said that many of Australia’s 150,000 Muslims have experienced harassment and bigotry, was released by Immigration Minister Nick Bolkus on November 4, just days after his government announced new laws carrying jail sentences for inciting racial hatred.

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